24 Children Die of Mysterious Disease in Odisha District

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">MALKANGIRI (NNN-PTI) -- With 24 children dying of a mysterious disease during last two months in Odisha's Malkangiri district, the government has launched a drive to create health awareness and conduct medical examination in the tribal-dominated district.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"We have collected blood, water and mosquito samples in the affected areas to ascertain the reason behind the death and augmented the drive to create health awareness among the people", chief district medical officer (CDMO), Sashibhushan Panda said.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Twenty-four children aged between six months and four years died in some villages under Malkangiri and Korkunda blocks. They had swelling in their eyes, nose and ears accompanied by high fever and blood vomiting leading to death, he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A six-member expert team of scientists from Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhubaneswar</st1:place></st1:city> visited the affected villages and collected samples for investigation.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Another team of doctors from the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">MKCG</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Medical</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Hospital</st1:placetype></st1:place> at Berhampur was touring the areas Monday.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"There is no death of children since the last three days and the situation is under control now", the CDMO said.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A team official on condition of anonymity said that the symptoms afflicting the children were akin to Japanese Encephalities or Dengue. However, it could be known only after a thorough investigation of the collected samples, he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Even as the district administration was initiating steps to urge the people to get their children to hospitals, the people, mostly tribal, were blaming witchcraft for their troubles.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"It is a Herculian task to create awareness among the people in the district. They have faith in their "Disari" (quack), "Wade" and "Gunia" (black magician) and perform "Dumapuja" (invoking the spirit). They believe that whoever goes to the hospital will invite the curse of their deity", an official said.-NNN-PTI<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div>

24 Children Die of Mysterious Disease in Odisha District

MALKANGIRI (NNN-PTI) -- With 24 children dying of a mysterious disease during last two months in Odisha's Malkangiri district, the ...

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India among Bottom 5 Nations in Child Mortality: UN

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hRrvsM4jxpQ" width="640"></iframe><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">UNITED NATIONS (NNN-UNI) -- The pace of childhood death rates has declined sharply in recent decades - with an estimated 6.9 million children dying before their fifth birthday last year, compared to around 12 million in 1990 and India figured among the nations that still suffer acutely.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia still account for more than 80 per cent of global under-five deaths. Their disparity with other regions is becoming more marked as regions such as Eastern Asia and Northern Africa have cut child deaths by more than two-thirds since 1990, according to a new UN report.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Half of all under-five deaths occurred in five countries: India, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and China, according to the report, which also found that India and Nigeria account for more than a third of all under-five deaths worldwide.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">The report released here Friday asked for greater strides to meet international goals in order to save infants and young children.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">"Proven solutions need to be expanded to accelerate progress on child survival faster and farther," said the report of the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Formed in 2004, the group is made up of the UN Children's Fund, the World Health Organization, the Population Division of the UN Department of Development and Social Affairs (DESA) and the World Bank.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Its activities include sharing data on child mortality and improving methods for child mortality estimation reporting on progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight goals agreed upon by world leaders in 2000 to slash extreme poverty and other global ills.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">The group said gains in child survival, though significant, are still insufficient to achieve the fourth MDG, which calls for reducing the global under-five mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Only six of the world's ten regions are on track to reach the target. Worldwide, an estimated 19,000 children died every day in 2011, with around 40 per cent in the first month of life and most from preventable causes. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">The report calls for systematic action to reduce neonatal mortality. "Highly cost-effective interventions are feasible even at the community level," said the group, which advocates expanding preventative and curative interventions that target the main causes of infant mortality.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Globally, it noted, the leading causes of death among children under five are pneumonia, pre-term birth complications, diarrhoea, complications during birth and malaria. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">The report said rates of child mortality have fallen in all regions of the world in the last two decades - down by at least 50 per cent in Eastern Asia, Northern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Southeastern Asia and Western Asia. -- NNN-UNI<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

India among Bottom 5 Nations in Child Mortality: UN

  UNITED NATIONS (NNN-UNI) -- The pace of childhood death rates has declined sharply in recent decades - with an estimated 6.9 million ch...

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Falling Birth Rates Blamed for Poor School Enrollment in Indian State

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">BANGALORE, India (NNN-Bernama) -- The number of children enrolling in schools has shown a downward trend in the south Indian state of Karnataka due to falling birth rates, a recent report says.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The report from the state commission on structural upgradation and reorganisation of school education said that some 693 government schools received five or fewer enrollments and another 2,510 had 10 enrollments and below.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The report said that falling birth rates in the state have contributed to poor enrollment of pupils in schools, Press Trust of India reported.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"More than 13,000 out of 45,200 elementary schools under the Department of Education (standard 1 to 5) are located in small habitations and have fewer than 30 children enrolled during the 2011-2012 period," the Commission said in its report.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The draft report of the Commission has been made public to seek feedback from stakeholders by Aug 31.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Dwindling enrollments at the lower primary school stage affect numbers in higher primary schools, which in turn contribute to smaller sized high schools. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Demographic variables are a significant factor in planning exercises in secondary education," the Commission said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The report also finds a declining growth rate in the 15 to 18 age category.-- NNN-BERNAMA<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Falling Birth Rates Blamed for Poor School Enrollment in Indian State

BANGALORE, India (NNN-Bernama) -- The number of children enrolling in schools has shown a downward trend in the south Indian state of Karn...

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India Ranks Second in Underweight Children

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Bernama) -- India has the second highest percentage of underweight children below the age of five, the Health and Family Welfare Ministry told the parliament upper house on Tuesday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Pneumonia and diarrhoea are the leading causes of death among children under five, with both diseases contributing to 22 per cent of deaths for this group, said State minister Sudip Bandyopadhyay in referring to the World Health Statistics report 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For prevention and control of these diseases, the minister said awareness on sanitation and hygiene is created among mothers in the communities and on the causes and treatment of diarrhoea through health education, Press Trust of India reported.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"Antibiotics for treatment of pneumonia and dysentery are made available through the public health system," Bandyopadhyay said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To check high infant mortality rate, various vaccines under a universal immunisation programme are provided to children to protect them against diphtheria, pertussis, measles and tuberculosis.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A recent survey shows the prevalence of underweight children in 100 districts has decreased from 53.1 per cent in 2002-2004 to 42 per cent last year. -- NNN-BERNAMA<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

India Ranks Second in Underweight Children

  NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Bernama) -- India has the second highest percentage of underweight children below the age of five, the Health and ...

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Israel Urged to Treat Palestinian Child Detainees in Accordance with Rights Law – UN

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9-rTxtWUQnjxkCiZDlHSW8ewSxJZnsYCXkEaQNp1DBesx-dTsOcmNOVBQ5-mM_gbTwBJU4jw_b_KOjeIsV14r5fLkU2BheKknXV8YxG4SqoH2RaQ1B7z33loWXMJwNTf7r8wKemzxOs/s1600/439514-falk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9-rTxtWUQnjxkCiZDlHSW8ewSxJZnsYCXkEaQNp1DBesx-dTsOcmNOVBQ5-mM_gbTwBJU4jw_b_KOjeIsV14r5fLkU2BheKknXV8YxG4SqoH2RaQ1B7z33loWXMJwNTf7r8wKemzxOs/s320/439514-falk.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Special Rapporteur Richard Falk<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> UN Photo/Jess Hoffman</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">UN News---– A United Nations independent human rights expert today condemned Israel’s use of solitary confinement against Palestinian children, and urged the Israeli Government to treat such detainees in accordance with international human rights laws</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>“</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Israel’s use of solitary confinement against children flagrantly violates international human rights standards,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, said in a news release</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>“</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However, using solitary confinement as a punishment for Palestinian children who wish to peacefully protest their situation, including by commencing a hunger strike against conditions of detention, is an appalling abuse of child prisoners,” he added. “I again condemn Israel’s harsh arrest operations and procedures</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.”</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mr. Falk’s comments came in the wake of earlier concerns on the issue, raised today by the UN Special Committee on Israeli practices in the Occupied Territories, at the end of a fact-finding mission to Jordan, Egypt and the Gaza Strip</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>“</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to testimony received, Israel uses solitary confinement against 12 per cent of Palestinian child detainees,” the Special Committee’s Chairperson, Ambassador Palitha T.B. Kohona of Sri Lanka, said in a news release. “This is especially troubling when one considers that Israel arrests about 500 to 700 Palestinian children every year</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.”</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Special Committee also warned that a pattern of detaining and mistreating children “links to broader, longstanding concerns regarding Israel detention of Palestinians generally</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.”</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>“</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Witnesses informed the Committee that mistreatment of Palestinian children starts from the moment of detention,” Mr. Kohona said. “Large numbers are routinely detained. Children’s homes are surrounded by Israeli soldiers late at night, sound grenades are fired into the houses, doors are broken down, live shots are often fired; no warrant is presented. Children are tightly bound, blindfolded and forced into the backs of military vehicles</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.”</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Special Committee head said that parents are not allowed to accompany the detainees, and that family members are insulted, intimidated and at times physically assaulted. According to witnesses, the detention and transfer of children can last for hours, and can often include stops in Israeli settlements, Israeli checkpoints and police or military bases</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>“</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This pattern of abuse by Israel is grave,” said Special Rapporteur Falk. “It is inhumane, cruel, degrading, and unlawful, and, most worryingly, it is likely to adversely affect the mental and physical health of underage detainees</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.”</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Special Rapporteur appealed to the Government of Israel to take urgent steps to bring their treatment of Palestinian children detainees into line with international human rights laws, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere have</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In its preliminary observations in the wake of its fact-finding mission, the Special Committee drew attention to two further areas of immediate concern in the West bank, including East Jerusalem: the Israeli practice of demolishing Palestinian homes, and violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Special Committee also assessed the economic impact of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>“</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">These Israeli practices lead the Special Committee to one over-arching and deeply troubling conclusion,” Mr. Kohona said. “The mass imprisonment of Palestinians; the routine demolition of homes and the displacement of Palestinians; the widespread violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians; and the blockade and resultant reliance on illegal smuggling to survive; these practices amount to a strategy to either force the Palestinian people off their land or so severely marginalize them as to establish and maintain a system of permanent oppression</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.”</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Special Committee will present a mission report to the UN General Assembly in November, with its observations and recommendations to improve the human rights situation</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not United Nations staff, nor are they paid for their work.</span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Israel Urged to Treat Palestinian Child Detainees in Accordance with Rights Law – UN

Special Rapporteur Richard Falk  UN Photo/Jess Hoffman UN News---– A United Nations independent human rights expert today condemned Isr...

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HEALTH: Treat the Mother - Save the Baby

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLWZfMw6XY2brAbiDqrnhRFZGWOq_U0q7sErAoVPLuRiCQdASxENHvtmdASAWU619qNklxn4wpuhyPd191RRHPP_7B8fM7wYLnQ3zl_Y90ig_iEzgympEAXC_VT16F-B86UY3kIKiZCho/s1600/201205151237530313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLWZfMw6XY2brAbiDqrnhRFZGWOq_U0q7sErAoVPLuRiCQdASxENHvtmdASAWU619qNklxn4wpuhyPd191RRHPP_7B8fM7wYLnQ3zl_Y90ig_iEzgympEAXC_VT16F-B86UY3kIKiZCho/s1600/201205151237530313.jpg" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcnelson/3098244355/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Super.heavy/Flickr</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Something to smile about...</span></div></td></tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">LONDON (IRIN) - The past decade has seen great advances in child survival, but while toddlers and small children are benefiting, the death rate for new-born babies remains stubbornly high. Now a new report suggests that paying more attention to their mothers’ health, and focusing on certain damaging but treatable diseases, could be one key to tackling neonatal mortality.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The traditional childhood killers - measles, pneumonia and diarrhoea - are all down; even where malaria is still rife, treated bednets are saving children’s lives. But as deaths from other causes drop, mortality in the first month of life looms ever larger. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Statistics published recently by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore show that, worldwide, around 40 percent of children who die below the age of five die in the first month of life, and that rises to 50 percent or more in regions like Europe and South East Asia where other causes of childhood death have been reduced. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Many of these babies were born too soon, or born too small; others were born with infections contracted from their mothers. In all these cases it is the mother’s health during pregnancy which is the key to the babies’ survival, and now the American Medical Association has published astudy of the incidence in pregnant women of health problems which are known to affect their unborn babies, and which can all be treated. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The researchers looked at 171 studies from Sub-Saharan Africa over a 20-year period, which showed whether women attending ante-natal clinics were infected with malaria, or with a range of sexually transmitted and reproductive tract infections - syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia and bacterial and parasitic infections of the vagina. If left untreated, these can lead to miscarriages, stillbirths, premature births and low birth-weight babies. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Malaria affects placenta <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Matthew Chico, a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who led the team, stresses the far-reaching effects of these problems. In malaria, for instance, the placenta does not function properly. “What you end up with,” he told IRIN, “is a low birth-weight baby, and low birth weight is the single most common factor in neonatal mortality. And it leads to lifelong consequences. Low birth-weight babies underperform at school and end up earning less, and curiously they even end up with more cardiovascular problems later in life. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The good news is that all these conditions are treatable. It is just a question of finding the best way to reach these women, many of whom will have no symptoms and be unaware they are infected“There are multiple consequences. Girls are at greater risk, for instance, of having low birth-weight babies themselves and so it continues into the next generation. We have to break the cycle.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Chico and his colleagues divided the continent into two regions - East and Southern Africa, and West and Central Africa, because of the way the higher incidence of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa might affect the results. They also excluded South Africa, because malaria was a major part of the study, and malaria there has been reduced to the point where it is no longer an issue. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What they found was alarming. The incidence of syphilis and gonorrhoea was relatively low, under 5 percent, and the most recent figures show them on the decline. But in East and Southern Africa more than half the women attending antenatal clinics tested positive for bacterial vaginal infection and more than a quarter had the parasitic infection, trichomonas. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">These figures were a little lower in West and Central Africa, but those areas had a higher rate of malaria infection, around 40 percent, although this had reduced a little in more recent studies, an indication perhaps that the promotion of bednets for pregnant women has had an effect. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The averages conceal considerable variations from place to place, with one set of figures from Blantyre, Malawi, showing more than 85 percent of women had a bacterial vaginal infection and another, from Ngali in Cameroon, reporting that almost 95 percent of women there were infected with malaria. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So what can be done? Effective treatment could make a major dent in neonatal mortality. “It’s been established that universal coverage with preventive treatment for malaria would reduce neonatal mortality by a third,” says Chico. “So add to that an STI [sexually transmitted infection] and RTI [reproductive tract infection] component and the reduction could certainly be more than that.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The good news <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The good news is that all these conditions are treatable. It is just a question of finding the best way to reach these women, many of whom will have no symptoms and be unaware they are infected. The current treatment regime is to give all pregnant women preventive treatment for malaria using Fansidar (sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine). But growing resistance to the drug means this is less effective than it used to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">One possibility is to do a blood test for malaria at each antenatal visit, and only give treatment if the test is positive. “The screen and treat approach minimizes drug use,” Chico told IRIN, “and that would minimize drug resistance. But the test doesn’t show if the placenta is infected, which is what affects the unborn baby, and this approach doesn’t give protection against sexually transmitted infections. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Or else you could use a preventive combination therapy with an antimalarial plus azithromycin, which is primarily an antibiotic and will act against the other infections, but also has some antimalarial properties. Many doctors don’t like to give a pregnant a woman any drug unless they are sure she needs it, but in this case the alternative is much more grave. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“What we need now are studies to compare the alternative treatments in similar populations. Only then will we know what path to follow.” </span></div>

HEALTH: Treat the Mother - Save the Baby

Photo:  Super.heavy/Flickr Something to smile about... LONDON (IRIN) - The past decade has seen great advances in child survival, but wh...

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NEPAL: HIV-positive children, orphans neglected

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaQgt3lh8jMJ8mQ2F5uYXh9co7eJr21UZP6knni5fm27gediVSRWeiamDnTo7Hob7a3-aSLWqo7RN-S-SjBWyDbjezjmAlI4iMu6iu4QqrdvUxw_R387s7X3F8LudLOoMaJtbVIk_eqRs/s1600/201103021645360958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaQgt3lh8jMJ8mQ2F5uYXh9co7eJr21UZP6knni5fm27gediVSRWeiamDnTo7Hob7a3-aSLWqo7RN-S-SjBWyDbjezjmAlI4iMu6iu4QqrdvUxw_R387s7X3F8LudLOoMaJtbVIk_eqRs/s400/201103021645360958.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Photo: <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo.aspx"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">David Swanson/IRIN</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">There are close to 5,000 children under 14 years of age <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">living with HIV in Nepal today (file photo)<o:p></o:p></span></div></td></tr> </tbody></table><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">RAKAM (PlusNews) - In the village of Rakam in Dailekh District, about 700km northwest of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, 12-year-old Ravi* is living with HIV and has no idea if he will finish his education.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">"I feel weak all the time. My uncle is tired of hearing my complaints," he told IRIN. Barely six when he lost his parents to AIDS-related illnesses, he now lives with his father's brother and family, who are struggling to support him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is proving a challenge. They can't even afford the bumpy eight-hour bus journey to the nearest city of Surkhet for his CD4 count test, which measures immune strength.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">According to the National Centre for AIDS and sexually transmitted disease (STD) Control (NCASC), there are close to 5,000 children under 14 years of age living with HIV in Nepal today, but local NGOs and health workers estimate the real number to be much higher. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">"There could be many more orphans and children living with HIV, but the government of Nepal has failed to pay any attention to their plight. Supplying medicines is not enough," said AIDS activist Deepa Bohara, the coordinator for NGO Parivartan ko Lagi Pahuch (Access for Change). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There are as many as 15 HIV-positive orphans and children in Dailekh alone, the group reported. "We are extremely worried about the welfare of these children. We hope to get enough government support to help them," said Khagendra Jung Shah, chief of the Dailekh District Hospital. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">His office can only provide life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs - there is no separate budget to give these children any social support. Moreover, there are no programmes to sponsor their education, pay for medical expenses or offer psychosocial counselling. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Dailekh is one of the poorest districts in the country, with most people living on less than US$1 per day, according to government figures. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Stigma remains high in Nepal, and HIV-positive orphans sometimes face neglect from relatives after their parents die. In one extreme case six months ago, a five-year-old orphaned HIV-positive child (name withheld upon request) died of exposure after his relatives forced him to sleep in the barn out of fear that he would infect the other children. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">"I don't fear dying from AIDS, but constantly worry about the day when my mother dies and I will be alone in this world," said Ashim *, 10, who lives with his HIV-positive mother. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">"We are extremely worried, not only about the orphans, but also those whose HIV-positive parents are alive. What happens after their parents die?" said another health worker, Sushil Bikram Thapa from Nepal STD and AIDS Research Centre, a local NGO. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">According to the National Centre for AIDS and STD Control in the Ministry of Health and Population, there are more than 50,000 adults and children living with HIV, and an estimated overall prevalence of 0.30 percent in the adult population (15-49 years old). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">*Not his real name <o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

NEPAL: HIV-positive children, orphans neglected

Photo:  David Swanson/IRIN There are close to 5,000 children under 14 years of age living with HIV in Nepal today (file photo) RAKAM (Pl...

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NIGERIA-CHAD: Migrants Fleeing Boko Haram Violence Await Aid

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i><br /> </i></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp3qfKafco71-C3jCoPxzB-eFBNHxDBcSn355zDnDfO4jof30oLqRBANGy2aPQmhuqwsAiySC_-KJQq7CXzgxYHf4mw5hCPyS6ZtMYV02xM1cbP6H1CRMZ2Vm7wdEY-r6bNYnGWFldpoo/s1600/201203060939430937.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp3qfKafco71-C3jCoPxzB-eFBNHxDBcSn355zDnDfO4jof30oLqRBANGy2aPQmhuqwsAiySC_-KJQq7CXzgxYHf4mw5hCPyS6ZtMYV02xM1cbP6H1CRMZ2Vm7wdEY-r6bNYnGWFldpoo/s1600/201203060939430937.jpg" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; font-size: medium; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo: Jules Laouhingamaye/UNICEF<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; font-size: medium; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Most of the migrants are Koranic students, aged 6-14<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div></td></tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">BOL (CHAD) (IRIN) - Some 1,000 Chadian migrants - most of them children separated from their families - are waiting for aid in the village of N’Gbouboua in the Lac region of western Chad having fled Boko Haram-related violence in Nigeria, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With more arriving each day - some 100 have arrived in the last 48 hours according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) - the food situation is getting desperate, say aid workers. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Migrants told UNICEF they fled the villages of Douri and Madaye in eastern Nigeria when members of the Boko Haram militant group attacked them, burning down houses. Police and military forces then arrived and started firing at those who remained, claiming they were Boko Haram supporters, according to witness accounts. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some 10,000 people have reportedly fled northern Nigeria for Chad and Niger in recent weeks, fleeing violent crackdowns and Boko Haram violence. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The head of the canton and sub-head of the district have put together a local emergency team to register migrants and try to build them a makeshift shelter on the outskirts of N’Gbouboua. Most of the migrants are currently sheltering in the village’s two mosques and one church. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some 557 of the migrants are children, 80 percent of them Koranic students or `talibés’, who live with and support their Koranic teachers (`marabouts’), said a senior district official. According to IOM, most of these children come from the Lac Chad region, including the villages of N’djelea, Bagasoula and N’gloua. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Attacks by Boko Haram and ensuing violent crackdowns by Nigerian police and military forces have killed up to 1,000 people in Nigeria since 2009. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Residents of the surrounding eastern Nigerian villages of Dougouri, Folkine, Koyorom and Malfahtri also fled. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To reach N’Gbouboua, each migrant had to take up to six boats to cross Lake Chad as the crossing is often interrupted by river banks and boats have to avoid very low water levels. Migrants told UNICEF Water and Sanitation Officer Jules Laouhingamaye that many had stayed behind in the Chadian village of Faroro nearer the Nigerian border, some 30km from N’Gouboua. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Begging to survive <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The needs are enormous and migrants urgently “need everything”, said Laouhingamaye, with food and water the most urgent priorities. UNICEF has counted a significant number of breastfeeding women among the migrants, many of whom have had little or nothing to eat in over a week. Village residents are sharing what little food they have but there is simply not enough to go around, he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /> </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBCleB_Rw8Q43TUR7rQFUpG0jc8D0i7Z8I15KPDmKqWFuwe3Q4dM2DFQYWK5Ij5qZ6eSfjfnWrh6ifq4Fhnk3vf71RTyWzAE_cZN_o3UFOBVna9DNEgcNeZo2EhEnTaF-ZTATXHDN3w88/s1600/201203060937590504.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBCleB_Rw8Q43TUR7rQFUpG0jc8D0i7Z8I15KPDmKqWFuwe3Q4dM2DFQYWK5Ij5qZ6eSfjfnWrh6ifq4Fhnk3vf71RTyWzAE_cZN_o3UFOBVna9DNEgcNeZo2EhEnTaF-ZTATXHDN3w88/s1600/201203060937590504.jpg" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; font-size: medium; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Jules Laouhingamaye/UNICEF<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; font-size: medium; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Locals are collecting straw to build a hangar to house the migrants </span></span></div></td></tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Many of the talibés, accustomed to begging for alms, are going door-to-door begging for food, but the villagers “have had enough - they’re starting to get angry,” he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">UNICEF’s Laouhingamaye, along with staff from their partner NGO Secours Islamique France (SIF), have distributed soap and some water containers to migrants, and are putting together a water and sanitation response following a rapid evaluation on 3 and 4 March. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span>“We’re doing what we can to help get them sanitation materials, but food is needed now,” he told IRIN in Bol, (capital of Lac Region in Chad, some 125km away), having just returned from the site. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The deputy head of the region has asked the regional authorities and aid agencies for aid but thus far no food has been delivered. “Food is the immediate priority,” Laouhingamaye told IRIN in Bol. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The UN country team, including representatives from the World Food Programme, is meeting on 6 March to plan the UN response. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Reaching N’Gbouboua involves travelling on appalling roads with maximum speeds of 45km per hour, and a river crossing on a rudimentary raft that will take nothing larger than a 4WD vehicle. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Among the migrants are some 100 Christians - most of them farmers from the Mayo Kebi and Tandjile regions of southern Chad. “We will have to help provide these groups with transport so they can return to their homes,” said IOM’s Sufi. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If the resources are available, IOM will start an operation to help migrants return to their homes as soon as possible said Sufi. The organization recently helped some 100,000 Chadian returnees home after they fled violence in Libya. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span>“We will follow the same approach here... This is a migration crisis. It is risky to leave these people there [so close to the border]. These people have nothing to do with Boko Haram,” Sufi told IRIN from the capital, N’djamena. IOM has already distributed some medicines but many more are needed. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some of the migrants who hail from Chad’s Kanem region further north have already started to make their way home, according to IOM; while among those in N’Gbouboua, most told UNICEF they want to return to their homes in Chad, while some hope to return to Nigeria if things become less insecure. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tracing families <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Reunifying the hundreds of `talibés’ will be an arduous task, say child protection agencies. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Gamalao Dara, a child protection consultant with UNICEF who returned from the site yesterday after evaluating protection needs, told IRIN the situation is “complicated” but many of the children they interviewed do know the names of their home villages and thus their families may be traceable. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sufi told IRIN the task may be hard but it is not impossible: “As agencies we have experience in family reunification... We will have to see what can and cannot be done.” <o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

NIGERIA-CHAD: Migrants Fleeing Boko Haram Violence Await Aid

Photo: Jules Laouhingamaye/UNICEF Most of the migrants are Koranic students, aged 6-14 BOL (CHAD) (IRIN) - Some 1,000 Chadian migrant...

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India: 42 Pc Underweight Children, a National Shame-PM Manmohan

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">NEW DELHI</span></st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (NNN-PTI) -- Highlighting that 42 per cent children were underweight in a country witnessing high growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today described it as a national shame and said the government could not rely solely on ICDS to address the issue. --NNN-PTI<o:p></o:p></span></div></div> <br /> <br /> _________________________<br /> I added cool smileys to this message... if you don't see them go to: http://s.exps.me

India: 42 Pc Underweight Children, a National Shame-PM Manmohan

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI) -- Highlighting that 42 per cent children were underweight in a country witnessing high growth, Prime Minister Manmoh...

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EGYPT: Calls for Minors to Be Kept Out Of Political Clashes

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><b><br /> </b></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTK9pL3cSGC9AMHZgu3XJCYwlTjItQyKOQbDP56elS2wfoJKiAeZS_c1GjdmN28zuVLKF22-6pt3uc05ySWqLQNjsdOBSnxMgsmXMeZAZjML-tUNF8WjWxwiR-qEluG-chadEG0bwd1N0/s1600/Activists+protesting+against+police+brutality+in+Cairo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTK9pL3cSGC9AMHZgu3XJCYwlTjItQyKOQbDP56elS2wfoJKiAeZS_c1GjdmN28zuVLKF22-6pt3uc05ySWqLQNjsdOBSnxMgsmXMeZAZjML-tUNF8WjWxwiR-qEluG-chadEG0bwd1N0/s400/Activists+protesting+against+police+brutality+in+Cairo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">Activists protesting against police brutality in Cairo</span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">Photo: <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo">Amr Emam/IRIN</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /> </div></td></tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">CAIRO</span></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (IRIN) - The involvement of children in violence during ongoing clashes between protesters and police in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region> should be addressed because it is against international norms, say child rights activists.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“I have seen hundreds of children leading the fight against military and civilian policemen in violent clashes across the nation over the past months,” Mahmud al-Badawi, a lawyer and the chairman of local NGO Egyptian Association for the Assistance of Juveniles and Human Rights, told IRIN. “This is totally against local and international laws.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Children were caught up in deadly clashes between demonstrators and military policemen guarding the cabinet and parliament buildings in central <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cairo</st1:place></st1:city> on 17 December. Some were seen hurling stones at the police and setting public buildings on fire.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Some children were injured; others were killed in the violence, which has persisted since protests began against former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Too often children are caught up in the spiralling violence,” said Philippe Duamelle, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>, in a statement on 22 December. “Reports and first-hand testimony by children paint a graphic picture of how the latest confrontations affect them.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Children were also caught up in deadly clashes near <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cairo</st1:place></st1:city>’s <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Tahrir Square</st1:address></st1:street> on 23 November. Activists say most of those involved in violence live on the streets. That is why the problem of street children should be at the top of the National Salvation government’s agenda, they say.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“The government has to pay some attention to these children who suffer a deplorable lack of the most basic services,” said Fadia Abu Shahba, an expert from the state-run National Centre for Social and Criminological Research. “These children have found no care whatsoever from society.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Cash inducements?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">According to Mahmud al-Badawi, children have been exploited and cajoled into participation in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s political conflicts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">When clashes occurred outside the cabinet building on 17 December, he hurried to the scene along with other colleagues and found children holding money and cigarettes. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“The fact that these children were holding money shows that they might have been paid by somebody to be part of these incidents,” said al-Badawi. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Whether these children were paid to attack military policemen guarding the cabinet and the parliament buildings remains to be seen. A large number of juveniles taking part in the clashes were arrested and are being interrogated, according to local media reports.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“UNICEF urges the authorities and all other parties to fully respect the rights of children and protect them in accordance with Egyptian and international humanitarian and human rights law,” said Philippe Duamelle. “They should not be victims of violence nor unnecessary witnesses to violence.”<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

EGYPT: Calls for Minors to Be Kept Out Of Political Clashes

  Activists protesting against police brutality in Cairo Photo:  Amr Emam/IRIN CAIRO (IRIN) - The involvement of children in violence...

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Pakistan: An Unforgivable Sin

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <h1><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: small;"><br /> </span></h1><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrvri2Nycbwq45HBHrcowi5s0gW4RyoO8RRPYOwYn03l4gLb2J5pJEMjEzxMJDOhi7n-vhwTT9iVGZXGatTUdsr6xiqIkktyTg_bO4tM_8sbXrNitF6mKVIVh6mDC6tok4YlQUeal8f3g/s1600/Pakistan+An+Unforgivable+Sin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrvri2Nycbwq45HBHrcowi5s0gW4RyoO8RRPYOwYn03l4gLb2J5pJEMjEzxMJDOhi7n-vhwTT9iVGZXGatTUdsr6xiqIkktyTg_bO4tM_8sbXrNitF6mKVIVh6mDC6tok4YlQUeal8f3g/s320/Pakistan+An+Unforgivable+Sin.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">A <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> charity has put up cradles with an appeal to place<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;"> infants in them rather than murder them Photo: <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Kamila Hyat</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td></tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="facibeenhere"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">LAHORE</span></st1:city><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"> (IRIN) -<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="facibeenhere"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The murder of infants, particularly girls, by poverty-stricken parents in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> appears to be on the rise</span></span>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="facibeenhere"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Late at night two months ago in a village in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region>’s <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Punjab</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Province</st1:placetype></st1:place>, the parents of a two-day-old infant girl smothered the child, and then buried her tiny body in a distant field, carefully patting down the soil to hide any signs of digging. The mother cries often and says she still has nightmares about the event.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> <span class="facibeenhere">“I cried myself; I had delivered the baby and she was perfectly healthy. But her parents had two daughters already, and felt they couldn’t afford another. The father, a labourer, earned only 4,000 rupees (US$46.50) a month, and I know those people ate just once a day,” Suriya Bibi, a `dai’ or traditional midwife from the village, told IRIN.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="facibeenhere"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to Anwar Kazmi, a spokesperson for the charitable Edhi Foundation, more and more bodies of infants are being collected from the streets. “I would say there has been a 100 percent increase over the past decade in the number of bodies of infants we find. Nine out of 10 are girls,” he told IRIN.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> <span class="facibeenhere">Girls are traditionally considered a `burden’ on families, with large sums frequently spent on their marriages. “People feel girls make no economic contribution to families,” Gulnar Tabassum, a women’s rights activist, told IRIN.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="facibeenhere">Kazmi said 1,210 bodies of dead infants were found last year - compared to 999 in 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <span class="facibeenhere">“The reasons are linked to mindset and to poverty,” he said. While the Edhi Foundation places cradles outside the orphanages it runs, and urges people to leave babies in them rather than kill them, only a few choose to do so.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> <span class="facibeenhere">According to the Foundation, about 200 babies are left each year in the 400 cradles it puts out nationwide with signs urging parents to use them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span class="facibeenhere"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Since children born out of wedlock in this conservative society are at greater risk of infanticide, the Foundation encourages the placing of such children with responsible surrogate parents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span class="facibeenhere"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“These children are innocent,” said Kazmi.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">No accurate statistics</span><o:p></o:p></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <span class="facibeenhere">The Foundation also collects its data mainly from larger cities. It is unknown how many other deaths may be taking place in rural areas, or regions in the tribal areas and Balochistan and Sindh provinces where official figures show poverty is highest.</span></span><span class="facibeenhere"><o:p></o:p></span></div><table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #aabbdc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(51, 102, 153); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(51, 102, 153); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(51, 102, 153); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: rgb(51, 102, 153); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1pt; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; margin-top: -0.75pt; width: 190px;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_s1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="''" style='position:absolute; margin-left:-89.65pt;margin-top:-77.25pt;width:17.25pt;height:13.5pt; z-index:1;mso-wrap-distance-left:0;mso-wrap-distance-top:0; mso-wrap-distance-right:0;mso-wrap-distance-bottom:0; mso-position-horizontal:absolute;mso-position-horizontal-relative:text; mso-position-vertical:absolute;mso-position-vertical-relative:line' o:allowoverlap="f"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.jpg" o:title="quotopen"/> <w:wrap type="square"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img align="left" alt="''" border="0" height="18" src="file:///C:/Users/wisdom/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image001.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_s1026" width="23" /><!--[endif]--><strong><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">The mothers themselves wish to save the children but they also see the economic struggle of their families in a time of growing inflation</span></i></strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="''" style='width:17.25pt;height:13.5pt'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image002.jpg" o:href="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/quotclose.jpg"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img align="absmiddle" alt="''" border="0" height="18" src="file:///C:/Users/wisdom/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image002.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025" width="23" /><!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="facibeenhere"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“The number of tiny babies we bury is increasing. In some cases the neck or wrists have been slashed open,” said Muhammad Taufiq, a gravedigger in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lahore</st1:place></st1:city>.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> <span class="facibeenhere">“I have had women who are pregnant come to me crying, because their husbands or in-laws say any baby born must be killed since they cannot raise it. I can do little to help, since</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="facibeenhere">abortion is illegal</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="facibeenhere">in the country, and for various cultural reasons the use of</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="facibeenhere">birth control</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="facibeenhere">is far too low, though many woman want to use it,” said gynaecologist Faiqa Siddiq who works at a charitable clinic for women.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <span class="facibeenhere">“The mothers themselves wish to save the children but they also see the economic struggle of their families in a time of growing inflation,” she says.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="facibeenhere">According to data from the Federal Bureau of Statistics reported in the</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="facibeenhere">media, non-perishable food items saw price rises of 11.83 percent in the year to November 2011. Other percentage increases during the year were: tomatoes (42.02), spices (36.37), fresh fruit (29.62), betel leaves and nuts (24.56), condiments (23.50), milk (21.11), milk products (20.47), beverages (19.79), cooking oil (19.56), and meat (19.35).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <span class="facibeenhere">“Times are becoming harder and harder. I have just given birth to my fourth child. We will do all we can to raise the children, and murder of course is an unforgivable sin, but sometimes I understand the despair of parents who do so,” said Safia Bibi, a washerwoman whose husband is an odd-job man.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> <span class="facibeenhere">The family earns a monthly income of Rs. 6,000 ($70). “The children go barefoot because just feeding them is next to impossible. We survive mainly on `roti’ [bread] and pickles,” she said.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div></div>

Pakistan: An Unforgivable Sin

A Pakistan charity has put up cradles with an appeal to place  infants in them rather than murder them Photo:  Kamila Hyat LAHORE (IR...

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‘Children Movies are always safe routes to take’ – Varun Mehta

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <h3 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /> </span></span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">By<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.groundreport.com/krishnayadav"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Krishnayadav</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>  <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="facibeenhere"><span id="article_date"> </span></span><span class="facibeenhere"></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br clear="all" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /> <br clear="all" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /> </span><o:p></o:p></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBT7uZzz0aI_qt8aOFaQy1Q5dKi_Cux2Ql6BG8S14iu_Nyh0YfJfNqOhm-wYC8DYA9CZjQZhSPyZdjKBIac-CoNJ7ecJt1sEnjoecDPQqjfnmCeHcTULUv9ikFmgD4sqdWd1dYJ6aICKc/s1600/The+Wonder+stone+Premiere.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBT7uZzz0aI_qt8aOFaQy1Q5dKi_Cux2Ql6BG8S14iu_Nyh0YfJfNqOhm-wYC8DYA9CZjQZhSPyZdjKBIac-CoNJ7ecJt1sEnjoecDPQqjfnmCeHcTULUv9ikFmgD4sqdWd1dYJ6aICKc/s320/The+Wonder+stone+Premiere.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">The Wonder stone Premiere</span> Photo <a href="http://www.groundreport.com/includes/ajax/image_popup.php?image=2943434&image_id=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">© <span style="background: white;">GroundReport</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></i></div></td></tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><a href="http://www.groundreport.com/Media_and_Tech/-Children-Movies-are-always-safe-routes-to-take-Va/2943434" target="_blank"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">GroundReport</span></a> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">- Making film on kids is a difficult job especially when it’s a message oriented film and the kids have to perform no lesser than the adults. It’s a big challenge but Varun Mehta claims to have succeeded in this. His Film ‘The Wonder Stone’ that talk about an adventure of an alien stone with the Kids finally saw its premiere on 28^th<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of December 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The movie has already been in News by receiving honors at Children’s International Film Festival at Chennai followed by the Music Video ‘Evolution’ screened at Cristal Movie Awards at <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Switzerland</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The film stars 6 ordinary school kids from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Aligarh</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place> and Varun leaves no stone turned to have the environment rustic and true to the environment of the city. One of the kids find the alien stone and it results in an explosion only to give him majestic superpowers but the changes that leads to the conclusion is another story.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When asked about the experience Varun replies – ‘It was a very very tough job…because it’s a one man’s show. I have worked on each and every frame of this movie from start to finish. It was really tiring but I am glad that I managed to complete it. I accept the flaws and I take the blame too. But In the end I know people will enjoy the film more.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But why only Children? The film could have been on a large level with adults, Varun replied –“‘Sure, but the innocence of kids can’t be portrayed by adults. The emotions displayed by kids in this movie are far better than any senior artist and you will agree when you will watch the movie yourself’. Besides Children Movies are always safe routes to take. If you have made a good kiddo movie with a good story. Rarely people take the technical side for criticism.” The film has also been uploaded on YouTube on 31^st<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of December 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div></div>

‘Children Movies are always safe routes to take’ – Varun Mehta

By   Krishnayadav        The Wonder stone Premiere Photo © GroundReport GroundReport - Making film on kids is a difficult job espe...

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